The paperless revolution has been slow to arrive. But it may accelerate if more companies decide to bill customers a few dollars apiece for old-fashioned hard copies.

Telus is making a one-time donation to the Nature Conservancy of Canada when customers switch to paperless. But shouldn’t it give customers an incentive, such as a discount arising from their cost savings?

60 comments

Interesting. I just received a letter that said Rogers will charge $2 for a paper bill. An interesting concept that. A bill for my bill…

Grocery stores should now charge a cashier’s fee for ringing up your stuff. And maybe when I buy gas, I should pay the cashier there for the privilege of him giving me the bill too…

This is asinine. Rogers (and others) reap all the benefits – all the savings – all the profits. I have to waste my data on looking up my billing information. I have to waste my time waiting for the Rogers website to load up.

That said, I do most of my banking and billing online as it is, but I am disgusted that people are being charged to receive their bills!

Here’s one thing I discovered with Fido: If you end up in a situation where you still have an account, but no longer have a phone number associated to it (e.g. if you transferred your service to somebody else), their online billing system won’t permit you to log on.

I wrote about my own experience trying to get a final bill reprint and my credit balance refunded:

I wrote a letter to Rogers, the Rogers Ombudsman and the CRTC re: the $2 paper billing fee.

I got a phone call from Rogers explaining the fee is for environmental reasons. This is crap, since if that was the case they should stop sending out junk mail.

It’s not right. Computers crash. If we want a hard copy of our online invoice, its our own paper and ink being used.

Online billing is just another way of taking control from the masses. Rogers is using the Environmental Card for its own advantage and just adds fuel to the fire of division between the environmentalists and those who believe there is nothing wrong with our environment.

This is shameful and those who came up with this ridiculous plan should be ashamed.

The public, by “allowing” this type of behaviour by big companies, is in essence giving up part of their freedom, which won’t be realized until it’s too late.